The inventive concepts disclosed herein relate generally to the field of aircraft flight display systems. More particularly, embodiments of the inventive concepts disclosed herein relate to improving situational awareness of an aircraft operator or aircraft control system during an aircraft landing procedure.
Landing is considered a critical phase of a flight. When landing, the pilot generally seeks to touch down on the runway within a threshold window or zone. If the pilot can touch down within the threshold window, then the remaining length of the runway typically provides sufficient distance to bring the aircraft to a complete stop. If the pilot overshoots the threshold window, for example, then there may not be sufficient runway distance to bring the aircraft to a complete stop.
In some instances, it can be difficult for a pilot to accurately predict an actual touch down point on a runway. For example, heavy wind, turbulence, and other environmental conditions can unexpectedly affect the actual touch down point. Furthermore, a view of the runway through a cockpit of the aircraft may be obstructed or otherwise have low visibility due to weather conditions, which may cause the pilot to choose between attempting a landing or a circling around to repeat the landing procedure. Some existing systems provide messages with basic information (e.g., a “short runway” alert) when an aircraft descends below a threshold altitude and the length of the runway ahead is less than the computed landing field length. However, these messages may not provide sufficient information to the pilot.